“About 20 inches of snow. We expect to be without power for some time. Off to knock snow off the trees, snow blow and fire up the generator.”
They live in the semi-country and have a gas-powered generator in the garage that can power the entire house. Well, maybe no washing clothes or using the microwave, but enough for lights and the all-important furnace.
Most homes there use heating oil and the furnaces require electricity. Without a generator, you could have a very cold house and maybe frozen pipes, which leak when they thaw (water expands when turning into ice, fracturing pipes.).
20 inches of wet, heavy snow in northern Connecticut before Halloween is off the charts. The governor there just said this is the worst power outage ever.
Many northern CT areas have 100% power outages.